The U.S. Congress has an honored history of investigating criminal and political conspiracies stretching back to the nineteenth century when investigations were conducted into the activities of certain Freemasonic lodges and the Klu Klux Klan. In confronting the present terrorist conspiracy, Congress should reassert its constitutional prerogative and re establish an investigative committee. Such an investigatory body, when run by elected representatives with the power to legislate, is necessary in order to preserve freedom and the domestic security of the loyal and law-abiding citizen. This is as fundamental a function of elected government as is the maintenance of an adequate defense against foreign aggression.
Contrary to the pervasive propaganda emanating from the left, congressional investigations into Communism, as well as Nazism, were conducted with a great deal of moderation and effectiveness and were overwhelmingly supported by the American people. These committees were able to identify those conspiring to aid and abet the activities of both the Communists and the Nazis. Congressional committees uncovered irrefutable proof that both Nazism and Communism maintained vast international networks and, in the case of Communism, had deeply penetrated the American government, industry, academia, and other spheres of influence. The committees seriously crippled the Communist menace, which was why they were destroyed after decades of machinations by the subversives themselves, and their vast network of well appointed friends.
These committees included the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, the Subversive Activities Control Board, the Attorney General’s Subversive List, President Harry S. Truman’s Loyalty Review Board, and other federal, state, and private investigative groups. These committees would be stymied and eventually undone by the shrewd and concerted assault of radical congressmen, executive branch officials, and well-funded leftist groups such as the ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild. By the mid 1970’s, the committees had been, to use a communist term, smashed. Since then, our nation has ambled along as if in a fog without an adequate means of investigating political and criminal conspiracies. We are now paying the price for such carelessness and malfeasance.
The proposed committee would hold Hearings on conspiracy to commit subversion, espionage, sabotage, and terrorism. If such conspiracies were identified, the committee would then draft legislation, which would be presented to Congress for open debate and, if passed, presented to the President for a signature or a veto. The new laws would serve as needed tools for the FBI and other government agencies. Such laws would be subject to judicial review if lawsuits ensue.
The committee could hire and train top-notch attorneys to both prosecute cases against subversives and defend against lawsuits brought by them. Laws to be considered could include those stopping the flow of American funds to subversive organizations through foundations, charities, and other money-laundering fronts. The Immigration and Naturalization Service could be charged with investigating the background of any visitor deemed to be a security risk for any reason. The committee could investigate links between foreign terrorist groups and their American supporters. Congress could pass a law prohibiting the U.S. government or private industry from trading with or in any way aiding terrorist organizations or nations deemed to be terrorist by Congress.
Congress is responsible to insure, as the preamble to the Constitution states, “domestic tranquility” and, in that function, to take extraordinary measures from time to time to deal with specific and extraordinary threats. While such power should be approached as only a temporary solution to deal with a specific threat, and should be closely monitored by the other branches of government, the media, and citizens, nonetheless, such power must be exercised if we are to expect to be free of terrorist conspiracies.